NOTICE: This is an OSHA Archive Document, and may no longer represent OSHA Policy. It is presented here as historical content, for research and review purposes only.

STATEMENT OF JOSEPH A. DEAR

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

BEFORE THE

SENATE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE ON

LABOR, HEALTH, AND HUMAN SERVICES,

EDUCATION AND RELATED AGENCIES

MARCH 24, 1994

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

Thank you for this opportunity to discuss the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration's Fiscal Year 1995 appropriation request. The Fiscal Year
1995 budget requests a total of $320,903,000 and 2,378 FTE -- a net increase
of $23,659,000 and 61 FTE from 1994. This reflects a significant increase in
the Department's commitment to enforcing the safety and health laws, as well
as OSHA's share of the government-wide reductions intended to streamline
government and reduce administrative expenses.

Secretary Reich and I are committed to building a revitalized OSHA,
rededicated to its mission of saving lives, preventing serious injuries and
protecting the health and safety of America's workers. In keeping with these
vital goals, we are requesting a program increase of $15,455,000 and 91 FTE
to support OSHA's portion of the Department's enforcement initiative. Three
major areas are covered by this initiative. First, the request will enable
OSHA to strengthen its inspection enforcement activity in several ways,
including: adding front-line compliance officers and investigators; focusing
on those employers who fail to comply with safety and health regulations,
including pursuit of litigation where appropriate; making maximum use of
information technology to increase the productivity of our compliance
officers and improve overall enforcement efforts; and increasing funding for
OSHA's State plan partners to improve the effectiveness of their inspection
programs. Second, the request will enable OSHA to increase safety and health
training opportunities. Proposed activities in this area include: increased
funding for an additional 13 training and education grants to the private
sector, including indirect funding from a proposed language change to utilize
private sector tuition money at the Training Institute for these grants; and
an increase in local education centers providing safety and health training
sanctioned by OSHA. Third, the initiative includes enhancements for the
standards promulgation activity, which will enable the agency to adhere to
its new regulatory prioritization schedule, respond to emerging issues, and
support increased standards development and regulatory studies.

The request also contains an increase of $3,270,000 and four FTE to support
an improvement in data available to OSHA. This increase will provide the
initial resources for a comprehensive data collection system that will enable
the agency to focus on employers, worksites and work practices that pose the
highest risk of occupational injury and illness. This system will include
establishment-specific data from the OSHA logs that employers are already
required to maintain. Establishment profiles will be developed for targeting
purposes.

The requested increases, combined with our reinvention efforts, will enable
us to implement improvements in many areas. Inspections and standard setting
will be directed to the most serious hazards. We are in the process of
revising the Field Operations Manual in order to streamline the inspection
and citation process to remove barriers to prompt and efficient enforcement.
We are also looking at ways to streamline the lengthy standards development
process. While strong enforcement and effective standards come first, we
will also develop new and innovative ways to encourage cooperation between
workers and employers, and educate workers and employers to create the safest
and healthiest workplaces possible.

In Fiscal Year 1995 we plan to increase the number of onsite inspections and
also expand other non-inspection enforcement activities. Overall, we
anticipate approximately 42,900 Federal enforcement inspections in 1995.
State safety and health inspectors in plan states are expected to conduct an
additional 67,100 worksite inspections. Effective enforcement will include
increased use of the egregious policy, and streamlining of this policy in
consultation with the Solicitor of Labor. We will make increased use of
criminal penalties where appropriate. OSHA will continue to focus on the
deterrent effect of individual inspections by pursuing corporate-wide
settlement agreements, which extend abatement requirements over entire
multi-worksite corporations. The agency anticipates approximately 30 of
these agreements in 1995. Enforcement efforts will be targeted where they
will do the most good. This will include expanded use of pilot projects
which use workers' compensation data to target the most hazardous workplaces
in a state.

In previous years, OSHA relied primarily on the number of inspections
conducted to measure its effectiveness. While the onsite inspection program
continues to be an important component of the enforcement program, we are now
looking at ways to measure the full range of agency intervention efforts.
Programs designed to encourage employer voluntary compliance will be given
added weight. The agency's customer service improvement plan will inform
employees of opportunities to file complaints and obtain quick abatement in
situations that may not require an onsite inspection.

State plans will promulgate and enforce new safety and health standards, and
strengthen their enforcement and litigation strategies, in keeping with
changes in the Federal program. The agency's State plan monitoring system
will be fully operational, improving the evaluation of state programs.

OSHA's technical support staff continues to provide laboratory services,
engineering expertise and regulatory analyses to support all aspects of the
program. In 1995 we will implement an Information Technology Plan designed
to enhance the technological environment in which the agency operates. This
plan will coordinate the agency's data venues into a single information
source to better serve the agency and the public. The agency's medical
support staff will address many new and complex issues facing the health care
industry. The development of a proposed ergonomics standard in 1994 should
significantly increase requests for ergonomics analysis, as well as requests
for information concerning ergonomics issues.

Designated state agencies will conduct approximately 26,250 onsite
consultation visits to small employers under programs funded largely by OSHA.
States will be encouraged to increase participation in the Safety and Health
Achievement Recognition Program, which recognizes small worksites that have
established effective safety and health programs. Areas of emphasis in the
consultation program are expected to include confined space entry, process
safety management, tuberculosis exposure, and bloodborne pathogens. The
agency expects that the number of worksites participating in Voluntary
Protection Programs, which recognize exemplary safety and health management
programs, will continue to grow.

OSHA will continue to administer and maintain the national injury and
illness recordkeeping system, providing guidance to both the public and
private sectors. The final regulation for recordkeeping will be promulgated
in 1995, and training of OSHA personnel, state plan personnel, and the public
will begin. Consistent with government-wide reinvention efforts, OSHA will
experiment with new approaches to improve agency performance. These will
include customer service improvement efforts, such as establishing a single
source for standards and policy interpretations that customers can use, and
decreasing backlogs for 11(c) discrimination complaints and VPP applications.

In keeping with our goal of strengthening OSHA, Secretary Reich and I are
supporting rapid legislative action to reform the Occupational Safety and
Health Act. The OSH Act has been effective in saving lives, as demonstrated
by the steady decline in fatality rates over the past twenty years. Despite
this and many other achievements, work-related injuries, illnesses and
fatalities continue to inflict tremendous pain and suffering, and impose
substantial economic costs on society. Most of these tragedies could be
prevented with effective worker-management involvement. We urge the Congress
to strengthen the tools which the agency now has to empower employers and
employees to reduce or eliminate hazards from their workplaces.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This concludes my statement. I will be pleased to
respond to any questions.

Biographical Sketch

JOSEPH A. DEAR

Assistant Secretary of Labor

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Department of Labor

Joseph A. Dear was confirmed as Assistant Secretary of Labor for
Occupational Safety and Health by the United States Senate on November 8,
1993. As head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Mr. Dear
is responsible for administering and enforcing the basic provisions of the
Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.

Prior to his nomination as Assistant Secretary, Mr. Dear served as director
of the Department of Labor and Industries in Washington State from July 1987
until early 1993. He was appointed to this post after having served as
deputy director from January 1985 until July 1987. In his position as
director, Mr. Dear was responsible for both workplace safety and health, and
workers' compensation programs. With the help of labor and management, Mr.
Dear spearheaded a major reform of the workers' compensation program,
converting a $225 million deficit into a $350 million surplus while
stabilizing premiums for employers and improving benefits to workers. He
also started health care cost containment and quality assurance programs.

Mr. Dear was president of the National Association of Governmental Labor
Officials (NAGLO) in 1990-91. He served on the board of directors for the
Occupational Safety and Health State Plan Association (OSHSPA) from
1989-1993. Mr. Dear also served as chairman of the State of Washington
Investment Board, which manages public pension portfolios and workers'
compensation funds totaling more than $19 billion.

Before joining the state government, Mr. Dear was research director of the
Washington State Labor Council from 1981-85. He was the founder of People
for Fair Taxes, a public interest coalition of labor, church and civic
organizations supporting progressive state and local tax policy, and served
as the organization's executive director from 1977-81.

Mr. Dear graduated from The Evergreen State College in Olympia in 1976, with
a bachelor of arts degree in political economy. He is a 1986 graduate of
Harvard University's program for Senior Executives in State and Local
Government. Mr. Dear is married and has two children.

NOTICE: This is an OSHA Archive Document, and may no longer represent OSHA Policy. It is presented here as historical content, for research and review purposes only.

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